Passive voice

RULE 29 Strive to Write In the Active, Rather Than the Passive, Voice... 

If you use the passive voice, the subject (most often you) is acted upon. In addition, sentences written in the passive voice tend to be too wordy, or lacking in focus. The last thing you want in your essay is long sentences that are confusing to the reader. The good news is passive-voice errors are easy to omit from your writing. 

Goof-Proof Hint Note the simplicity and directness of the second sentence in each pair. The first sentences, written in the passive voice, are clumsy and noticeably longer. 

Verbs have two voices. In the active voice, the subject is the source of, or cause of, the action. In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon. In a personal essay, you are usually the subject. That means the active voice is much more effective in conveying your personality through your essay— you re the actor, not the acted upon. The active voice is also clearer and more direct. In the following examples, note the simplicity and directness of the first sentence in each pair. The second sentences, written in the passive voice, are clunky and noticeably longer. 

Edit the following paragraph for clarity. Eliminate wordiness, unnecessary repetition, overly informal or overused language, the passive voice, and ambiguity. 

Wordiness and ambiguity often prevent ideas from coming across clearly. Edit your sentences to eliminate clutter and unnecessary repetition. Revise sentences that use overly informal or overused words, and exchange the passive voice for the active. Clarify ambiguous words and unclear pronoun references. Finally, improve your writing by using precise modifiers and adding variety to your sentence structure. 

Genres also vary by their conventional uses of verb tense (past, present, or future) and voice (active or passive voice). For example, most jokes (including the three-men joke) are told (or vv ritten) in present tense ( Three men are... about to be executed as opposed to Three people were...about to executed ). Present tense is used to make the joke more vivid for the listener or reader. Jokes also tend to be told in active rather than passive voice ... 

Two writing conventions apply to the Methods section as a whole the use of tense (past or present) and voice (passive or active). Past tense and passive voice predominate in the Methods section however, in some cases, present tense and/ or active voice are also used. Like other writing conventions, the proper use of tense and voice reveals authors familiarity with the expectations of the held, their objectivity, and more expert-like writing abilities. 

The Methods section is also written largely in passive voice. Passive voice is most often combined with past tense ... 

The mixture is heated to 80 °C. [present tense, passive voice] Appropriate The mixture was heated to 80 °C. [past tense, passive voice]... 

You may have been taught in other writing courses not to use passive voice because it is considered weak. However, passive voice, when used appropriately, strengthens writing in chemistry journal articles (and other scientific genres). Figure 3.3 shows the frequency of passive voice in each section of a chemistry journal article. Note that passive voice is used in all sections, but it is most common in the Methods section. 

FigureB.B Frequencies of passive voice (expressed as the number of passive verbs per 500 words) in sections of chemistry journal articles, determined through a computer-based analysis of 60 journal articles (approximately 300,000 words).

Table 3.4 Passive-voice-past-tense combinations commonly used in Methods sections/... 

Passive voice is preferred because it sounds more objective. Passive voice essentially removes the human subject (i.e., the scientist) from the sentence so that the focus of the sentence is the object that was acted on. 

When you join two sentences that are in past-tense passive voice, each subject must have a verb that is preceded by "was" or "were."... 

What rules have you created for yourself to remember when to use active voice and when to use passive voice in a Methods section ... 

Recall from chapter 3 that passive voice allows writers to remove the human subject from a sentence, allowing the writer to focus on the science rather than the scientists. One way to test if a sentence is in passive voice is to see whether you can add by someone to the end of it ... 

In hgure 3.3 (chapter 3), we reported the frequencies of passive voice in each section of a journal article. If you look back at figure 3.3, you will see that passive voice is used more frequently in Methods sections than in Results (or Discussion) sections. This distribution suggests that both active voice and passive voice are used in Results sections. Past and present tense, when combined with active and passive voice, form four different tense-voice combinations. Each combination has its own function, several of which are illustrated in table 4.1. 

Active Voice has/have + past participle Passive Voice has/have + been + past participle ... 

When citing others works to establish importance or provide background information, authors often use present tense or present perfect in either active or passive voice. 

Voice. Both passive and active voice are used in abstracts, although passive voice is more common ... 

Verb tense Verb tenses in conference abstracts are consistent with conventions described elsewhere in the textbook (e.g., see tables 4.1, 5.1, 6.5). For example, past tense is used to describe work done in the past (e.g., The rates were measured ), and present tense is used to make statements of fact or state information that is expected to be true over time (e.g., Furans are found in natural products ). Some authors use future tense (in active or passive voice) in conference abstracts to refer to the work that will be presented (e.g., We will present these Endings and The synthesis will be presented ). Others prefer to state such intentions in present tense—passive voice (e.g., The Endings are presented ). 

Voice Both active and passive voice are used in conference abstracts. Active voice is especially common in move I (e.g., 2,2 -BipyrroIes are key synthetic precursors ) but is also used in the rest of the abstract. Passive voice is often used to refer to work done in the past (e.g., Molecular dynamics simulations... 

Voice and we Poster Methods sections are written largely in passive voice active voice is used less often. We is commonly avoided. 

Passive voice Aldehydes were concentrated and derivatized... 

Passive voice High sensitivity was achieved (not we achieved high sensitivity ). 

Voice and we Both active and passive voice may be used in the poster Discussion section. The word we should be used sparingly (and is not used in excerpts 9H-9J), but it can be used to signal a decision, interpretation, or conclusion made by the authors. 

Passive voice Nine aldehydes were analyzed as possible contributors to this flavor loss. 

Voice and we Both active and passive voice are used in the poster Introduction, although active voice is more common. The word we can be used to signal the current work, that is, the work that the authors will present in the poster. 

Passive voice Low-level aldehyde concentrations were monitored. 

Lastly, we briefly consider verb tense and voice used in move 1. Goals and objectives are commonly stated in present and/or future tense. Both active and passive voice may be used. Common tense and voice combinations are summarized in table 12.3. Personal pronouns (e.g., we, my, our) should be avoided in the opening goal statement but may be used elsewhere in move 1 ... 

Lastly, we briefly consider verb tense and voice used in move 2. As shown in table 12.5, past and present tenses and present perfect may all be used. Past tense and present perfect are used to provide background information (work done in the past), typically in passive voice. Passive voice allows the writer to focus on the science rather than the scientist ... 

Rewrite the following sentences so that they are in passive voice and emphasize the science rather than the scientist ... 

We close our discussion of move 3 by analyzing common verb tense and voice combinations used in this move (table 12.6). Gaps are often stated in present tense (in active and passive voice), sometimes in combination with a present perfect-passive statement fill-the-gap statements are usually in present or future tense and active voice. Personal pronouns (I or we) are common in fill-the-gap statements. 

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